party prep…peppadews

We’re having friends over for dinner tonight. Just a few…and now a few more. Now it’s a nice cozy group of 10. Oh Sunshine! Who else did you invite?

I love getting the text…are we still on for tonight? Sunshine is always inviting friends for dinner. Sometimes he just forgets to tell me about it. Not that I mind. I love it!

Soooo…I got up early this morning to get the party prep started. Actually, Paige demanded that I get up to feed her breakfast at 5AM! God bless her.

The s’mores peppermint ice cream cake is ready to rock and roll, I’ll post about that later. Now these little gems are ready to go. They’re cheese stuffed peppadew peppers.

Gotta drain the peppadews, they come in a jar.

Thin the goat cheese with a little bit of buttermilk. Then add some basil.

Add just enough buttermilk to make it thin enough to pipe into the peppers. I didn’t have enough goat cheese to fill all of the peppers, so I thinned some smoked blue cheese with buttermilk and used that as well. They should be tasty too:)

Ready to serve!

Greg Schroeder, owner of Amazing Grapes Wine store

Greg says: Not an appetizer that will do well with a wine because of the conflicting cheeses. I’m in a growing herd of people that firmly believes beer is a much better pairing with cheese than wine. The tongue coating that occurs with cheese is not penetrated by wine and in fact makes the experience less than pleasureable. Beer on the other hand, cuts nicely through the cheese and actually prepares the palette for the next bite.

In this case, I’m recommending the Victory “HopDevil” India Pale Ale. It’s bold, spicy and menacingly delicious, just what you need to tame the pepper and cut through the two cheeses.